Nato

Did Senator Elissa Slotkin ask Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth where his Bible was when he "banged your Fox producer while married to another woman"? No, that's not true: The quote shared on social media is a made-up meme. The official transcript and a recording of the exchange between Slotkin and Hegseth do not include the purported quote about the Bible…

Did a widely-shared video show a submarine appearintg at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina? No, that's not true: The local Coast Guard unit told Lead Stories that no such thing happened. The viral reel was consistent with previously documented instances of a school of fish traveling together in the area, and that was confirmed to Lead Stories by South Carolina's Department…

Did an authentic news outlet report that the May 2025 expense report of the California Democratic Party showed it bought 200 pallets of bricks ahead of ICE protests in Los Angeles? No, that's not true: The story originated on a Facebook account that identifies the owner as a comedian working for Donald Trump. The bricks story did not include links…

Is a photo of Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham standing with Osama Bin Laden real? No, that's not true: The image was digitally altered from a real photo of McCain and Graham standing with Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai in July 2013. The fake version showing al-Qaida founder Osama Bin Laden began circulating after McCain's 2018 death as a way…

Do viral screenshots prove that U.S. taxpayers paid $411,634.00 for Senator Lindsey Graham's hotel stay in Kyiv, Ukraine, in May 2025? No, that's not true: His name is not linked to the spending documented in the images. The Department of State told Lead Stories that the screenshot of the agency's government contract in Ukraine had nothing to do with congressional…

On June 3, 2025 I was invited to make a statement during a public hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium organized by the Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield. The hearing was titled "Enforcement of the EU Digital Rulebook and political advertising in the context of foreign interference: understanding Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) and disinformation…

Did an image shown to the public by U.S. President Donald Trump during a May 21, 2025 meeting with his South African counterpart in the Oval Office capture a mass burial of "white farmers" in that country? No, that's not true: The image was a screenshot of Reuters footage showing a different country. The recording captured humanitarian workers assisting with…

Did the Pentagon in May of 2025 approve acquisition of a "Qatari-built jet" to be the next Air Force One? No, that's not true: There is no aircraft manufacturing industry in Qatar that could make a jet of that size. The Pentagon on May 21, 2025 announced it had approved President Trump's plan to accept a Boeing 747 as a…

Did the UN say that 14,000 babies would die if there is no aid to Gaza in 48 hours? Yes, the organization's representative did cite such a figure, but that figure appears to have been drawn from a UN prediction that covered roughly a year between April 2025 and March 2026, not a single day. Here is what we know…

Was Shiloh Hendrix's campaign to raise $1,000,000 frozen, as of midday May 9, 2025? No, that's not true: The crowd-funding platform told Lead Stories that the money is still available to the campaign owner. While working on this article, a Lead Stories reporter observed that donations were still coming in. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X…